GPSJ Autumn 2024 ONLINE - Flipbook - Page 38
GPSJ
IT & IT SECURITY
Azul Enables Newcastle City
Council to Mitigate Security Risks
of Unsupported Java
Council eliminated Java vulnerabilities, accounting for more than 80% of its IT security vulnerabilities
overall, with no disruption or impact on performance
Azul, the only company 100%
focused on Java, recently
announced that Newcastle
City Council (NCC) has
successfully implemented
Azul Platform Core to address
critical security vulnerabilities
in its Java-based applications.
This strategic move has
significantly enhanced the
council’s cybersecurity posture,
remediating more than 80% of
its IT vulnerabilities overall, with
no disruption to its essential
municipal services or impact on
performance.
Changes to Oracle Java Licence
and Pricing Left Council
Exposed to Security Risk
In 2019, Oracle changed how it
licensed and priced licensing and
support for Java 8 and, as a result,
NCC lost access to free quarterly
security patches. Committed to the
highest standards of security, NCC
conducts annual security audits.
When these audits began flagging
the Java runtime (JDK) as a major
concern – accounting for more than
80% of the organisation’s IT security
vulnerabilities – the council knew
it needed commercial support to
access security patches for its older
versions of Java. It also needed to
be able to address the vulnerabilities
without disrupting its essential Javabased business applications and
systems used daily by approximately
1,100 employees.
Full Support of Java Application
Estate and Critical Patch
Updates
NCC provides municipal services
to over 300,000 residents of
Newcastle, the largest city
in northeast England. Critical
applications such as financial
management, housing and benefits
run on Java version 8.
38
NCC explored several options
to address the need for more
secure Java applications, including
migrating away from Java completely.
However, this move would have
launched a year-long, prohibitively
expensive process, creating
GOVERNMENT AND PUBLIC SECTOR JOURNAL AUTUMN 2024
unacceptable downtime for the
government body. It also looked
at moving to a free distribution of
OpenJDK, but it needed full support
for its Java estate to ensure security
and stability.
After exploring these options, the
council turned to Azul Platform Core,
an OpenJDK-based alternative
to Oracle Java. With Azul, NCC
received a one-for-one equivalent to
a commercial support subscription
from Oracle, including Critical Patch
Updates (CPUs) that allowed IT to
immediately deploy security fixes in
production.
Because Azul supports more Java
versions and platforms than any
other vendor (including Java 6 and
7), the council could continue to
safely use its older versions of Java
without needing to upgrade to newer
releases. This transition also fortified
the security of its Java environment
across 5,000 desktops, and ensured
that its systems remained robust,
efficient and compliant with the
U.K.’s Public Services Network (PSN)
requirements.
“Through our strategic partnership
with Azul, we significantly reduced
our security risk level with our
Java applications and Java-based
infrastructure, which certainly helps
me sleep better at night,” said Jenny
Nelson, the council’s head of ICT &
Digital. “In addition, the benefits of
switching to Azul Platform Core as
our JVM are clear. Our Java estate is
now consistent, standardised, easier
to maintain, and has brought a level
of simplicity that’s a huge benefit to
our organisation.”
The council rolled out Azul Platform
Core to over 1,000 employees with
no impact on performance and
no complaints from service users.
The rollout achieved the council’s
business objective: a fully supported
and secure Java application estate.
“We are proud to support
Newcastle City Council in its mission
to secure critical municipal services
by helping to eliminate over 80%
of NCC’s IT security risks,” said
James Johnston, vice president
of EMEA at Azul. “The council’s
successful implementation of Azul
Platform Core is a testament to our
unwavering commitment to help
customers maintain the integrity
and performance of their critical
Java applications, while advancing
their overall security posture and
without impacting service levels or
performance.”
About Azul Systems Inc.
Headquartered in Sunnyvale,
California, Azul provides the Java
platform for the modern cloud
enterprise. Azul is the only company
100% focused on Java. Millions
of Java developers, hundreds of
millions of devices and the world’s
most highly regarded businesses
trust Azul to power their applications
with exceptional capabilities,
performance, security, value, and
success. Azul customers include
36% of the Fortune 100, 50%
of Forbes top-10 World’s Most
Valuable Brands, all 10 of the world’s
top-10 financial trading companies
and leading brands like Avaya,
Bazaarvoice, BMW, Credit Suisse,
Deutsche Telekom, LG, Mastercard,
Mizuho, Priceline, Salesforce,
Software AG and Workday.
Learn more at azul.com and
follow us @azulsystems.
